Search results for ""author david nolan""

In a world of boy bands and manufactured pop, Jake Bugg's simply-strummed tales of life on the council estate where he grew up have connected with music fans around the world. Bugg has turned the music industry inside out with the unexpected success of his country folk songs with a rockabilly twist. He's taken the sounds of the 1950s and 60s into the 21st century. But how did a teenager from Nottingham - a city whose music scene was previously notable for one hit wonders and novelty records - go from the bottom of the bill to the top in such a short space of time? Journalist David Nolan has immersed himself in the Nottingham music scene and tracked down the key players who helped Jake along the way. Here, for the first time, is Bugg's story, in this unofficial biography. Jake Bugg: is he The Council Estate Bob Dylan, The Cockiest Lonnie Donegan Wannabe in Nottingham or The King of the Clifton Delta? Maybe he's all three.

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Thrust into the international spotlight at the 2012 Olympic Games thanks to her moving performances of 'Abide with Me' at the opening ceremony and 'Read All About It (Part III)' at the closing ceremony, Emeli Sande is now an international superstar. However, her breakthrough came much earlier, in August 2011, with the release of her first single, 'Heaven', which peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Since then Emeli has been unstoppable, releasing her debut album 'Our Version Of Events' in 2012 to critical acclaim - an album which went on to be the UK's bestseller in 2012. What many don't realise, though, is that Emeli is more than just a singer. An avid pianist and songwriter from an early age, Emeli has co-written songs for a huge number of artists including Tinie Tempah, Alesha Dixon, Cheryl Cole, Professor Green, Leona Lewis and even Susan Boyle. And while music has always been her first love, Emeli is a firm believer in the importance of education, and was studying for a degree in medicine at Edinburgh University before deciding that music had to take precedence, Winning the Critics' Choice Brit Award in 2012 has confirmed the young Scottish singer as one of the great musical talents of a very talented generation, and while publicly 2012 was a hugely successful year for Emeli, privately it was too as she married her long-term boyfriend Adam Gouraguine in his home country of Montenegro.

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Self-described as a 'spotty, chubby, ginger teenager' with a love for Damien Rice and Nizlopi, Ed Sheeran was never an obvious bet to become a global superstar. And yet that's exactly what he's achieved, winning plenty of awards (and hearts) along the way. But how did a young musician go from selling CDs from his rucksack to becoming the millennial record-breaking international stadium act? Tracing his story from his bohemian childhood in Yorkshire and Suffolk to the release of his third album Divide, music journalist David Nolan chronicles Sheeran's musical life and times. Featuring exclusive interviews with friends, relatives, musical collaborators and key figures in his rise to stardom, Divide and Conquer tells the story of how Ed Sheeran went from school drop-out to one of the world's most successful musicians.

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Big Boots to Fill is the story of Argentina's search for a worthy heir to the great Diego Maradona. When Maradona led Argentina to World Cup glory in 1986 and Napoli to their first Italian title a year later, he was regarded by many as the greatest footballer of all time. Since then, in his homeland of Argentina, generations of players have been hyped as the 'new Maradona'. Some of them achieved eminence in their own right - players like the great Juan Román Riquelme, troubled Ariel Ortega, beloved Carlos Tevez and magical Pablo Aimar. Others wilted under the huge weight of expectation and ended their careers in obscure backwaters, playing in lower leagues. It was not until the emergence of Lionel Messi that the country had a worthy wearer of the sobriquet 'the new Maradona'. This is the tale of Argentinian football between Maradona and Messi, of all the highly touted players who have come and gone in between, and their struggles with the pressure of living up to the legend of the Argentine number 10 shirt.

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